About Us​

BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR LADY QUEEN OF PEACE

Long ago, a group of Catholics who lived in Peace Estate, Iba, came together to talk about building a Catholic church inside their community. This idea came from a serious accident where a child was hit by a car while walking across the main road to go to Catholic classes at Saint Augustine Catholic Church in Iba Housing Estate. The accident nearly cost the child’s life, which made the community feel it was important to have their own church for safety.
Besides this event, the Catholics in Peace Estate had already been meeting with Father Pius Omofuma, who was the parish priest at Saint Augustine, to discuss starting a church in their area.
This effort was led by several families including the Ikeonyeka family, ezemelue family, Late muokem family, ogunsusi family, Nwanokwara family, Solomon Chukwuma family, Onwuanaku family, Okegbe family, Ulasika family, Ezeokafor family, Igwegbe family, Late Madam Veronica Enebeli, and many other committed Catholic families.
During these meetings, Father Pius Omofuma promised to visit soon.
After a few days, he called and said eight plots of land had been secured for the church. He named it Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church, because the area was known for being peaceful. When Father Omofuma moved on, Father Michael Etegene became the new parish priest of Saint Augustine.
The Catholics continued to meet with him about their plans, and he approved their idea to hold Mass inside the estate. At the same time, Saint Joseph was declared a Quasi parish, and Our Lady Queen of Peace was made an outstation under Saint Joseph.
Father Francis was the parish priest at Saint Joseph Catholic Church at that time, and later Father Chiedu George became his assistant. The first meeting was held at Mr. Ezemelue’s home to introduce the Catholics in the area. The priest in charge asked if they could gather at least 20 people for Mass the next Sunday. To his surprise, over 100 people showed up for Mass that day.
The first Mass was held on October 12th, 2014, on Ademola Street, led by Reverend Father Francis Ealefoh. At that time, Mr. Cornelius Ezeifejiafor was chosen as the council chairman, Mrs. Florence Ezemelue as the secretary, and Engineer Ulasika Chinenye as the assistant secretary.

After the Mass on the street, the parishioners all worked together to bring trips of sand to the church site. The church site was a thick, swampy area with lots of palm trees. With the help of the late Godfrey Akuneziri (Ezen­g­wo), who cleared the thick swamp area by himself because he was a palm wine tapper, to the glory of God, we started making fast progress.

Chief Gilbert Okonkwo gave us three inches of iron pipes (50 lengths) on his own to serve as pillars for the church.
At the same time, another miracle happened: Chief Izuchukwu Emebo roofed the church on his own, and it was a very great progress for Our Lady Queen of Peace.

We were moving like one big family as the fastest-growing outstation in Iba, and the number of parishioners kept increasing.
Societies and organizations were all formed: the CMO president was Mr. Christian Kanu, the CWO president was Lady Ikeonyeka Patricia, while the CYON president was Leo Okafor.

Under this umbrella of progress, the first harvest team came up: “Harvest of Divine Possibilities,” with the theme “With God, all things are possible.”
The harvest planning committee consisted of Mr Gilbert Okonkwo as chairman, Chief Ferdinand Ezeokafor as vice chairman, and Engineer Chinenye Ulasika as secretary.

After the 2015 harvest, Father Francis Ealefoh appointed Engineer Chinenye Ulasika to be the Parish Laity Council (PLC chairman) of Our Lady Queen of Peace for playing the role of Kabiyesi during the harvest, which yielded good success.
Mr. Ernest Onwuanaku was his Vice, and Mrs. Florence Ezemuele was the secretary. After the appointment for three years, an election was carried out, and Engr. Ulasika Chinenye still won as the PLC Chairman, with a tenure that lasted for three years.

Before the arrival of Very Rev. Fr. Ola-Maria John Agbolade, Engr.
Ulasika Chinenye’s tenure ended. Upon his arrival, he introduced a new church council system and appointed Engr. Ulasika Chinenye as the Vice Chairman and Bro. Obinna Richard Okafor as the PLC Chairman.